SYDNEY, December 16. /ITAR-TASS/. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said that the Australian Tarin Kowt military base in the Uruzgan province in Afghanistan was closed on Sunday. He said on Monday that the troops were returning home.

Australian sent it military contingent to Afghanistan in 2001; its numerical strength was 1,500 men. Forty Australians were killed in Afghanistan over the past 12 years in Afghanistan and more than 260 were wounded.

The Australian Defense Ministry said that the regular troops had been pulled out from Afghanistan. It added that around 400 Australian military personnel would remain in Afghanistan in training and support roles, mostly in the capital, Kabul, and in Kandahar.